How To Motivate Employees

08/22/2013

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead

Frederick Herzberg, in his classic article, "Once More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees," in the Harvard Business Review book, On Managing People, argues that to truly motivate employees we need to focus on intrinsic rewards, rewards that are associated with the actual accomplishment of work: achievement, responsibility, recognition, and growth. Extrinsic rewards - perks, promotions, pay - may be temporarily motivating, but will not over the long haul drive individuals to work harder. Based on this, Hertberg proposed "job enrichment" - making individuals' jobs more rewarding, as the key to motivation:

* Increase employee's accountability for their work by removing some controls.

* Give people responsibility for a complete process or unit of work.

* Enable people to take on new, more difficult tasks they haven't handled before.

* Assign individuals specialized tasks that allow them to become experts.

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